Photo: Carine06 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped. This adapted image is also licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.
Novak Djokovic has won Wimbledon after the longest singles final in the tournament's history. He beat Roger Federer 7-6, 1-6, 7-6, 4-6, 13-12 in four hours and 57 minutes on Sunday, for his fifth Wimbledon title and 16th Grand Slam.
Federer had two championship points on his own serve at 8-7 in the fifth set, and Djokovic saved both. He's the first man since Bob Falkenburg in 1948 to win the title after facing championship points. At 12-12 the match went to a final-set tiebreak, the first in Wimbledon history, and Djokovic won it 7-3.
Then he did what he always does here: he knelt down, picked a few blades of grass from Centre Court and ate them. Plant-based to the last.
Djokovic has eaten plant-based for years, but he doesn't like the word vegan. Speaking after his semi-final, he told the Press Association the diet is a big part of how he bounces back:
I do eat plant-based. I think that's one of the reasons why I recover well. I don't have allergies that I used to have any more.
He's also one of the executive producers of the new cut of The Game Changers, the plant-based sports documentary, and he says it goes beyond his own health:
It is about how this diet affects the world, not just personal health, but also sustainability, ecology, animals. This is what I care about so I'm really privileged to be part of that team.
Last year Djokovic won Wimbledon and the US Open on his comeback from elbow surgery, and in January he thrashed Nadal to win a record seventh Australian Open. Last week vegan Alex Morgan won the Women’s World Cup with the USA.
Five hours on grass, and he still had room for dessert. Powered by plants.